Apple and Samsung receive partial product bans, fined in South Korea

A South Korean court ruled on Friday morning that Apple and Samsung Electronics are not entirely poster boys for honesty, having infringed on each other’s patents in their rivalry to take over the world of smartphones and tablets. Hence, the same South Korean court ordered a partial ban of products from both hardware manufacturers, meaning this partial ban will take place only in South Korea. No idea on whether this will be a precedent for courts elsewhere in the world where both of these tech giants are duking it out for market supremacy, but we will wait and see. Damage payments have also been ordered from both firms.

Just what kind of effect will this partial ban have on both companies? Well, Apple was ordered to remove their iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2 from store shelves, claiming that they infringed on a couple of Samsung’s telecommunications patents. Not only that, the same court also decreed that Samsung infringed one of Apple’s patents which had to do with the screen’s bouncing back ability, hence banning sales of the Galaxy S2. It does seem as though Samsung came out of this “cleaner” than Apple in South Korea, but the war between the iPhone 4S and Galaxy S3 smartphones continue in that part of the world since they were not affected.

As for the monetary compensation, Samsung has to cough up $22,000 to Apple, and Apple has to pay Samsung $32,500 thereabouts after conversion from the Korean won. Peanuts, really.